Veteran journalist and supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, Rigoberto “Bobi” Tiglao, published an article in order to discuss the unsolved issues surrounding the presidency of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and the smuggling that happened then.

Former President Noynoy Aquino / Photo from Inquirer

According to Tiglao, Aquino made a wrong move when he also commented on the issue of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) ignoring a report made by one of their employees about the barrels that hit a Philippine port.

Smuggling issues

According to Tiglao, because of this, he then remembered other smuggled issues that happened during Aquino’s time.

According to Tiglao, Aquino is against President Duterte appointing military personnel in the BOC because it is not allowed there. Tiglao then goes on to say that Aquino is arrogant, then accuses him of having worse smuggling incidents during his time.

P4 trillion smuggled products

He said that since 2010 until the year 2015, over P4 trillion worth of smuggled products entered the Philippines and that his source if from the data of the International Monetary Fund and their Direction of Trade Statistics.

Tiglao also questions Aquino’s then appointment of Angelito Alvarez in the BOC when the former president could have chosen Guillermo Parayno who also served during the administration of former president Fidel V. Ramos.

Former Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez / Photo from Inquirer

He then goes on to say that there is a connection between Alvarez and Aquino, saying that the former is close to then Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima who was also close with Aquino.

According to him, it was during Alvarez’ time in the BOC that the smuggling happened, and not just that, but also that there were about 2000 container vans filled with products and goods that were lost.

It is also quite obvious that Tiglao does not believe Aquino and his “Tuwid na Daan” slogan, saying that his administration was full people who were corrupt and did nothing but serve themselves and not the Filipino people.

But it was not just Alvarez who was the problem but also Bert Lina who also joined in the Bureau of Customs and that he is allegedly linked to plunder and graft scandals.

Hypocrites

But more than that, Tiglao is especially angry that all of these things happened during the administration of Aquino but the opposition Senators especially Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Leila de Lima, and Risa Hontiveros were silent on the issue.